canon a1 rewind crank how ?

Hi everyone great forum !

I have a problem ... i have a canon a1 with no rewind crank on it and was wondering how i get it back into the camera ? there's a lever which opens the back door but its in the way ? how to i release it to allow space for the rewind crank pin ?

When I lost a rewind crank from a Ricoh, I stuck a dentist pick into the hole, angled it to catch the ring that has to be lifted to open the back of the camera and pulled up. Just about anything that is stiff, strong and hooked enough to catch on the way out should work. I haven't had to break into the Canons in my stable yet, but I don't think there is much difference.

I did the same thing with my electro 35. As soon as I closed the film door, I realized what I'd done. Fortunately, I was able to just take the top cover back off and lift up on the door release to get it open. Since the rewind knob is already off, perhaps you can remove the top cover without opening the film door back up. (not sure if you can do that on the Canon or not)

I'm not sure I fully understand what or how much is missing. From my own venerable A-1:

Is it just the little crank on the top? Or is it the knob that contains the crank and/or even the spindle below the knob?

Somewhere online years back I got an A-1 service manual. It's 200 pages are mostly more than I wanted to know about the electronics, but I am linking two pages that show some of the many parts in the area of that rewind.

It's not all that evident what is happening there (and I'm not about to take my A-1 apart for better look! ) but I think that spindle somehow picks up a link that disengages the door lock. If the spindle is out, maybe some very careful work with a small hook, like a crochet needle or a cleverly bent paperclip would allow picking up the link enough to release the door. The inside of the A-1, with scads of flexible circuit board wound around the interior, is something I would not look forward to digging into.